• GAZLO
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Richter: Don't look for baseball comeback at UW

Photo

Photo by Al Hoch

Former Wisconsin Athletic Director Pat Richter speaks at the Salvation Army’s Tin Cup Luncheon on Tuesday.

For those of you hoping to someday see a University of Wisconsin baseball team return, don’t hold your breath.

At least that is what former UW Athletic Director Pat Richter believes.

Richter was the guest speaker at the Salvation Army’s Tin Cup Luncheon at the Rotary Gardens on Tuesday afternoon.

Weather and financial considerations are the reasons baseball likely won’t make a return.

“It would be very difficult under the current circumstances,” Richter said in an interview after his luncheon speech. “The Big Ten schedule starts around the third week of March and finishes around the second week of May.

“The other thing, probably the biggest issue, is that if you added a sport, you have to add a women’s sport comparable in size and dollars. Then you have the ripple effect in that in academics and medical issues.”

The decision to cut baseball came during Richter’s reign as athletic director. Title IX regulations require a balance of dollars spent on both the men’s and women’s sports ledgers. Having a football program tips the scale heavily on the men’s side and schools were forced to either add women’s sports and/or cut men’s sports.

The Wisconsin decision came in 1991, with the school facing an athletic department deficit of $1.9 million. The school dropped baseball, men’s and women’s gymnastics and men’s and women’s fencing. At that time, the school had 11 men’s varsity sports and nine women’s.

Behind Richter’s guidance and the turnaround of the football program with the hire of Barry Alvarez as coach, the athletic department erased that deficit and is on stable ground.

The school now has 11 men’s varsity teams and 13 women’s.

While Wisconsin is the only Big Ten school without a baseball program, the sport isn’t flourishing in the conference. Michigan is the only Big Ten team in Baseball America’s Top 25. The Wolverines are ranked 17th.

“And if you look at the RPI (ratings power index), which is most important, I don’t think the Big Ten has anybody in the top 25,” Richter said. “That’s what gets you into the tournaments. You go down to Arizona to start the season and come back with a 2-11 record and your RPI is shot.”

Richter also said attendance was poor when the UW did have baseball.